'Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,' the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. 'Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.'

-Robert E. Howard
Beyond The Black River

Corrupt Cliffs

Corrupt Cliffs
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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Blockade Buster Conversion - Missile Pods

One of my original posts detailed a conversion of the Matchox Blockade Buster into a Grav tank.

This little tank from Matchbox is a pretty cool base for light/medium vehicles for 15mm sci-fi.  I bought a few of them.  My current project is to build a base that I can cast in resin and just plug the tops into to mass produce the grav tank from the earlier post.  That is an ongoing project and the subject of an upcoming post.

Today is an overview of a simple missile pod conversion I did.  The first step is to remove the turret leaving a pretty simple APC looking vehicle without a top.  You can see the blockade buster here with a 15mm robot from Ground Zero Games and a Matchbox Stryker.


Once the turret was removed the next step was to cover the hole that was left.  I did this with some 2 part putty.  Shaped a basic hatch and pressed it into the space and left it sit.  I also prepped the tank to take the launch pods by drilling a hole and gluing in a piece of brass rod.

 The next step was to set up the missile pods.  They were created from two quick electric connectors, the front of a bic pen and a piece of wire. 
using my pin vise I drilled a small hole in the bic pen and the two electric connectors.  This allowed me to use the small wire to work as a connecting axle for the two pods. 

 The next step was to afix the missile turret (minus the pods) to the body of the tank.  I did this with both a 2 part putty in the hollow of the pen and super glue.  I felt this would make the missile tank fairly robust.
 
Finally I attached the missile pods to the turret and affixed a small plastic gem to the top to act as a radar or perhaps a laser based active defense system.
And the completed missile tank.  Basic paint job n the pods and a quick wash to bring out the body details.
 

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic conversion!

    I have two of these vehicles left. For the first two, I added slat armor and made a remote-control turret out of a 20mm-scale Soviet 45mm ATG gun shield, with a rack of missiles attached to the side and a auto-cannon in the center (the auto-cannon was one of the barrels, repurposed, from the ATG box).

    I cheated for future conversions and got a couple MLRS-type rocket packs from Rebel minis.

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    1. I love these little tanks. Such great conversion fodder. I have a few left, but am planning some more grav tanks for most of them!

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